4th Quarter Crunch

Last night an old high school friend posted this little note on my facebook wall:

“did you know Santa Fe Chiefs took 4th in State (football)....and did you know that in last 33 yrs girls Volleyball has gone (to State) 25 times.”

A seemingly innocuous note about the championship girls volleyball program I played for during my high school career.

It’s now been almost 20 {gulp} years since those days and as I now find myself responsible for a multi-million dollar business in the last quarter of a tough year, I am fascinated by this little stat from a small town in Alma, Missouri.

Like so many companies this year, we at Fierce find ourselves reaching to achieve our annual sales goal. And I have been experiencing my fair share of stress over the “will we, or won’t we?” question plaguing so many executives out there. Some companies will accomplish their numbers and many will not. So what’s the difference? And on what side of the fence will we end up?

As I sat and thought about Santa Fe and the volleyball legacy that’s now in the hands of the next generation of girls, it occurred to me that Fierce’s ability to have a winning year doesn’t lie in the idea of “winning” or “losing” itself. Rather, it lies in the mentality of what it means to be a champion.

When you are a champion you don’t show up to the game prepared to win or lose. You walk onto the court or field to simply do your thing -- and that is to BE the champions. There’s no stress, no anxiety. Rather, it’s an extraordinarily graceful state of being. And, as a result, the whole winning part is merely a secondary outcome.

With that fresh in mind, I have now taken a different viewpoint of how I perceive these last few weeks of the year. It’s no longer a mad dash to grab the numbers with a slight tightness in the chest. Instead, it’s an opportunity to sit back and watch the champions do their thing.

For those of you curious about our outcome, I’ll update the comments section with our results. As of right now, we need $975K for “game over”.